Perchance to Dream
by HlysComment
Summary: Lucas is trying to get his father's attention by presenting his latest discovery to a forum of the world's greatest minds. When terrorists attack, Bridger and the SeaQuest scramble to save the day. But will they be in time?
1. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own SeaQuest but since the people who do aren't doing anything with it...

**This is my very first SeaQuest fanfic, so please don't eat me if I mess things up.**

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Bridger watched Lucas waiting for the shuttle. The boy was chewing a wad of bubble gum so large that Bridger could see his jaw was strained. Chewing bubble gum was something Lucas did when he was especially nervous.

He walked up behind Lucas and said softly, "You might want to spit that out _before_ you get to the podium this time, Kiddo."

Lucas jumped and turned toward Bridger's amused grin with slightly wild eyes.

"Uh, Captain." Lucas said trying to recover some semblance of cool while also trying to discretely spit out the gum. "You startled me. You're like a ninja sometimes."

"Uh, huh." Bridger said teasingly. "You're not nervous, are you? Maybe a little on edge?"

Lucas looked up through his eyebrows, as close to rolling his eyes as he dared with the ship's Captain.

"No." He said simply and with a hint of indignance and turned to face the shuttle dock.

"You're right. What was I thinking?" Bridger turned to face the shuttle dock with Lucas. "I mean, just because the foremost minds in astrophysics have assembled for the express purpose of evaluating your theories on the possibility of perpetual motion and it's implications on power generation. That's no reason to be nervous."

Lucas sighed and turned back to Bridger.

"Fine." He conceded. "I might be a little nervous. It's just, this is a big deal for me."

Lucas frowned. Being confused wasn't something with which he was comfortable and his feelings were always so confusing. That was why, before coming to the SeaQuest and meeting the incredibly stubborn yet brilliant Nathan Bridger, Lucas had avoided feelings by pushing people as far away as he possibly could.

Lucas looked at Bridger now. He was still gazing at the shuttle dock with that teasing and annoyingly smug look on his face.

Lucas sighed again. There was no point in avoiding the truth. Bridger, as always, knew exactly why this was such a big deal.

"He's going to be there." Lucas said in a slightly breathy voice. "If I'm right…If my project works…I would…it would…" Lucas couldn't find the words.

"You would succeed where your father failed." Bridger said turning his gaze back to Lucas who was now steadfastly studying the Captains UEO regulation boots.

"Yeah. Power for the whole world." Lucas couldn't help smiling at the thought. He had heard his father talk about that dream his entire life. Not to Lucas, exactly, but to the people around him. For the longest time even considering alternate means of power generation made Lucas angry. It reminded him of the fact that he would always come second to his father.

Then Lucas met Bridger. He came to see what a real father could be like and he wanted that. He wanted it so badly he could taste it and the idea occurred to him.

_If I fulfill his dream. Maybe if I become a part of that dream…Maybe, just maybe, he'll love me._

Of course, people always told Lucas that his father loved him. Even his father told him that on rare occasions but Lucas knew enough about how the world worked to know that the truth was found in what a person did and not what they said. His father's actions constantly told Lucas that he was just not good enough.

"So, are you afraid that it won't work or that it will?" Bridger said in an easy, conversant tone.

Lucas almost snorted. "I've run countless simulations. I've learned my lesson and let you look at it." Lucas made a slight mock bow toward Bridger.

Bridger laughed. "I hate to shake your confidence, Kiddo, but that…" and he pointed to the data crystal case Lucas was holding "…is way beyond my meager abilities."

Lucas raised a skeptical eyebrow and Bridger responded with raised hands and a chuckle.

"Honestly, Lucas. I'm a fair designer but this is delving into areas in which I have little or no experience."

"You know, you presh at pep talks." Lucas almost growled.

"Presh?" Bridger asked.

"Depressurize. Like, you know, you're not good at it. You fail, like a submarines system failing and it depressurizes." Lucas struggled to explain the etymology of the slang.

"Ah." Bridger said. "Um, in my day we said 'suck' or 'blow'."

Lucas looked curious, but then, when didn't he look curious.

"Why?"

Bridger frowned. "You know, I honestly have no idea. Doesn't matter. That's not what I meant anyway."

Now Lucas frowned. "You didn't mean 'suck'?" He asked confused.

"No, I didn't mean to ask if you were worried if your prototype would work. I was asking if you were worried your plan to win over your Dad wouldn't."

Bridger had said this while staring steadfastly at the shuttle dock and politely ignored Lucas' long moment of incredulity.

Then Lucas grinned lopsidedly. "I should have known. You know something, Captain. You're a genius."

Bridger raised his eyebrows. "I thought that was your job."

But Lucas was serious. He shook his head frowning. "No, I mean, you're plenty smart, don't get me wrong, but you're not me smart." Lucas said this plainly and simply not needing to project any sort of false modesty around Bridger.

Bridger knew that Lucas wasn't bragging. He was stating a fact that really couldn't be denied. There were few minds on Earth that could even really understand the boy's level of genius. Bridger smiled as Lucas continued, struggling to make his point.

"You're…it's almost like you're psychic or something." Lucas looked up quickly. "Are you?"

Bridger couldn't help it. He laughed out loud at that, shaking his head.

"No, Kiddo. Definitely not psychic."

"Well, you're practically psychic." Lucas frowned. "You always seem to know what's bothering me, even when I'm trying really hard to hide it."

Bridger smiled, put his arm around Lucas' shoulders and rubbed the boy's upper arm in a reassuring fashion. "I'm not psychic, Kiddo. You're just not as good at hiding things as you seem to think you are." Bridger could actually feel some of the tension easing out of the boy's shoulders.

Sometimes it made Bridger angry, how much weight was placed on those bony shoulders. But it also made him so very proud, how well this extraordinary boy…young man…dealt with that weight.

"You're going to be fine, Lucas." He smiled and was gratified to see the smile reflected in sparkling blue eyes.

Bridger stood in the docking bay and watched Lucas depart, giving the boy one last bit of encouragement, a thumbs up, before the blond hair disappeared down the hatch ladder.

"Good luck, Kiddo." He said and finally gave the worry he felt about Lucas' familial reunion free reign. "I hope you don't need it."


	2. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own SeaQuest but it wasn't being used.**

**Okay, so, someone might be wondering exactly when the plot would introduce itself. Well, plot...readers. Readers...plot.**

Williams looked out at the assembled men and women. Such a gathering was almost unprecedented. The greatest minds on the planet in one place and the security had been almost pathetically feeble.

Williams almost sneered in disgust as he thought of it. If this had been an assembly of politicians, blow hard airbags, the security would have been almost impenetrable. There would have been no possibility of his plan succeeding but with these men and women, almost assuredly more vital to the continued peace and prosperity of the world, or conversely the most likely to bring about its destruction, these men and women were not considered important enough to merit safeguarding.

It was a sad commentary on the state of affairs. But Williams had no qualm in taking advantage of his fellow human beings failings. This was for their own good. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Williams repeated the words again and again in his head; his own private mantra.

He wasn't looking forward to what he had to do. He didn't want to do it. But it had been made very clear to him that the UEO would not listen unless he _made_ them listen. At least, he was starting with someone easy.

Williams caught himself about to grimace and re-ordered his features into an impassive stare. No, it wasn't going to be easy to kill anyone. However, presenting a live execution of Wolenczak wouldn't be as difficult for him as it would have been with some of the others here assembled.

After all, Wolenczak had almost single handedly destroyed an entire ecological system when his overly ambitious and arrogant attempt at power generation had failed. Williams almost smiled as he remembered who had prevented that disaster from escalating even further, Nathan Bridger; his old friend doing what he did best, saving the day.

Williams almost frowned again as he also remembered that Nathan had almost died stopping that mad man and now, here Wolenczak was, trying to present another power generation strategy. One that would, no doubt, be just as ill conceived.

Williams was almost certain he would have to show he was willing to execute at least one of the hostages in order to really get the UEO's attention. Showing those pompous bureaucrats Wolenczak's death would surely get it. Despite his colossal failure, Dr. Wolenczak was still the UEO's golden boy.

Williams glanced at his program again. Wolenczak was due to speak in less than five minutes but as he scanned the crowd he still could find no trace of the man. Williams noted, again, that the good doctor was listed only as Mr. L. Wolenczak. He wondered how the conceited man had reacted to being demoted.

He grinned as he imagined the self absorbed man's consternation but his grin quickly faded when he noted that one of the grizzled old academics was approaching the podium.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please. It is my privilege today to introduce a young man who has been an inspiration to me, his old, emphasis on old," the man paused for the round of chuckles his joke has elicited, "teacher. When I first met Lucas…"

William's head shot up. Lucas?

"he was already quite accomplished but he lacked focus. I am extremely proud to say that in recent years, this incredible and brilliant young man has gained a great deal of maturity and with that maturity a drive and focus that have made this incredible breakthrough possible."

Williams looked over at his second in command, Lisa Davilla. She was shaking her head and shrugging, indicating she too had no idea what was going on.

"Here to present not only his data on the design but to debut the working prototype of his perpetual motion generator, Ladies and Gentlemen please join me in welcoming, Mr. Lucas Wolenczak."

The old man smiled brightly in the warm applause and gestured to the side of the stage. To Williams' horror and young, very young, man…a kid really, joined the old academic on the stage. He shook the old man's hand and faced the applause with a modest blush lingering in his cheeks. Then he nervously arranged note cards and began speaking.

"Good afternoon. We're here today to talk about energy. Energy is something that is a constant in our world. I am processing the information, the hundreds of complex commands necessary for me to stand her breathing, thinking and speaking to you, by means of the energy my body chemistry is able to produce and uses to create and transmit those commands throughout my body."

As he spoke, the boy relaxed visibly and his excitement about the subject matter was patent.

"Energy is something that we all have in common and something that we all need. However, the current means of creating energy for the many devices and machines we have created continue to be inadequate, in some cases unsafe and expensive."

The boy looked out at the audience with even greater confidence.

"The world through the UEO and other global organizations has taken great steps toward unity and peace. I believe that the availability of free and abundant energy to all the world's citizens is a step that we should and now can take toward even greater unity and peace."

Williams turned back toward Davilla who was looking a question at him.

Williams hesitated for a moment, but then made his decision. His swallowed a lump of regret but straightened his shoulders in resolve.

He gave Davilla the signal and all hell broke loose.


	3. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Don't own SeaQuest. If I did, we'd all be watching it.**

**Thanks for the review Swanpride. I hope this was fast enough for you. ;)**

Lucas was warming up. The subject of his speech was something about which he was passionate and excited. It was easier to stand up and focus all of his attention on his speech than to sit and think about the fact that his father, the great Dr. Wolenczak couldn't be bothered to attend the forum.

_Don't think about it, Lucas._ He told himself silently. He was just getting to the good part of the speech when something impossible happened. Gunfire. Lucas ducked behind the podium instinctively at the sound. _Gunfire?_

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" A voice range out loudly.

"May I have your attention, please?"

Lucas, like everyone else in the crowded ballroom looked toward the voice. He saw a large, imposing man standing on one of the seats toward the back of the room. The man was holding a gun over his head.

"As you can see, the exits are blocked and we are in control. I apologize for the violence of this measure but I assure you it is necessary."

Lucas suddenly noticed that there were armed men and woman standing in front of the doors to the ball room. He heard shots in the lobby as the man continued to speak.

"We are the Freedom of Information Force. We are here to send the message to the UEO that they can no longer buy, sell and hoard knowledge. That knowledge belongs to the world. That is why it is unfortunately necessary that you be our hostages, Ladies and Gentlemen. Please be patient. Hopefully your leaders will recognize your importance and no blood need be shed."

As he spoke his last words the man looked directly at Lucas. Their eyes met and Lucas felt his stomach flutter. The look in the man's eyes was sadness and for some reason that sadness was terrifying.

Captain Nathan Bridger was bored. Honestly, being in transit was boring. Unless something was wrong, of course, which most of the time it wasn't. There was no research going on in any of the labs that was particularly exciting. Now, if Lucas were here…

Bridger sighed.

"Where Lucas?" The mechanical voice of Darwin queried from the moon pool.

"Hello, my friend." Bridger greeted the dolphin warmly.

"Where Lucas?" Darwin repeated.

"Lucas has gone away but he'll be back very soon."

Darwin shook his upper body back and forth in a gesture Bridger had come to recognize as confusion and he bit back an exasperated sigh. Lucas' vocabulary recorder was an amazing achievement but abstract concepts like 'very soon' were still hard to communicate.

"Um, Lucas away now. Lucas here fast."

"How fast?" Darwin asked, showing that he had grasped the concept.

"It will be dark and then light again before Lucas here." Bridger said.

"Lucas here better fast." Darwin replied and Bridger smiled understanding that the dolphin was trying to communicate that he wanted Lucas to come back faster.

"Yeah," Bridger said as he gently rubbed the appreciative dolphin. "I want him here better fast, too."

"Sir!" O'Neill called suddenly. "Captain Bridger, there is an unauthorized vidlink message coming through. I can't stop it. It's…"

Lt. O'Neill stopped speaking as the vidlink message began playing on all the bridge's available screens.

"This is a message to the UEO from the Freedom of Information Force." An almost unnaturally pale man was speaking. He had hair that was so blond it was almost white and even his eyes were a pale shade of blue that was almost silver.

"Arthur?" Bridger said surprised. "Arthur Williams?"

The message continue to play but now the man's voice played over various images. The images were video clips of scientific experimentation on animals, nuclear weapons testing, space and deep sea exploration…

"In the past century the human grasp on the natural world has expanded exponentially and what is the result? Greed. The hoarding of information that would benefit mankind so that a select few can reap the benefits of power and wealth. The knowledge to cure many diseases exists but these cures are not produced, why? Because the diseases are so rare that treating them would not be profitable. Human genes and DNA sequences are patented and owned by private companies and even some governments. Governments classify information that could be beneficial to all of mankind, that could ease human suffering."

Now the image of the pale man reappeared and he was smiling sadly.

"Too long has this system continued. Today, it ends. A copy of an addendum to the UEO constitution is being downloaded with this vid file. The leaders of the UEO have one hour to review this addendum and sign it into international law. It is a very simple and straightforward document, and your review should be brief. If you do not comply, we will begin killing our hostages, which you will soon learn are the members of the International Science Forum. These are the most brilliant minds on the planet, ladies and gentlemen. If knowledge does not belong to all, it will belong to none. Do not test my resolve. The first to be sacrificed will be Wolenczak, the Forum's keynote speaker."

As the pale man made his last statement he appeared to be sincere.

"I do hope that you will not make that sacrifice necessary. Your hour begins now."

The vidlink ended.

The silence on the bridge of the SeaQuest was indescribable. If silence were sound, Bridger thought he might be deafened by it.

Finally, Lt. O'Neill spoke. "Sir, a have a copy of the addendum and we're receiving orders to come about and return to the Meyer's Complex to offer what support and assistance we may." O'Neill's sounded as though he were reading.

Lt. Com. Ford approached his Captain. "Sir? Do you know this man?"

Bridger nodded. "I thought I did." He said in a stunned voice. "He and I, we were friends. I've always known him to be passionate about scientific advances being for all people. It was something we had in common but, Arthur, he's an idealist. I always thought of him as a deeply passive person."

Bridger shook his head as thought to shake something loose.

"Do you think he would do it, sir?" Ford asked and couldn't keep the anxious worry from his voice. "Do you think he would really kill Lucas? He's just a kid."

"I don't know, Jonathan." Bridger said sadly. "I would never have thought him capable of even threatening human life. It seems I didn't know Arthur at all."

Arthur Williams surveyed the room. The members of the forum and other attendees were all sitting on the floor in small groups, each group guarded by three members of the FIF. The underwater complex in which the forum had been meeting, the Meyers complex, was secure and, surprisingly, everything seemed to be going as planned.

Well, almost everything. Williams looked back at the stage. The boy, Wolenczak, was still there, sitting as he had been directed to do, on the stage next to the elderly man who had introduced him. As the old academic noticed Williams looking at the boy he placed his left hand protectively on the boy's knee. Williams felt a stab of shame. An old man protecting a young boy, from him. He looked at the clock. It had been forty-five minutes since the virus with their pre-recorded message had been released and sent their message and their deadline to the leaders of the world.

He started moving purposefully toward the stage when Davilla suddenly appeared before him.

"I need a moment." She said and it was not a request.

Williams nodded curtly and turned toward the lobby doors. He led Davilla into an empty office adjacent to the lobby and closed the door. He knew what she was going to say.

"We can't do this."

Williams wasn't disappointed.

"We have to." He said simply and sat behind the desk.

Davilla paced. "Killing that arrogant son of a bitch, Wolenczak, is one thing but I don't kill children."

She stopped pacing and leaned over the desk toward him. "We can't do this, Arthur."

She stood back a pace from the desk and said defiantly. "I won't let you."

"We have already sent a message stating our resolve to kill Wolenczak…"

"But we didn't mean this one!" Davilla yelled, interrupting him.

"They don't know that. They think we were making a point. They think we chose him because of his brilliance and because of his youth and potential. Killing him sends a strong message. If we change our minds now, they will see it as weakness and we might as well give up."

Davilla screamed in frustration. "All this work!" She yelled.

Williams said nothing.

Davilla paced for a good long moment and Williams silently watched her. Finally, she stopped, her head bowed and her shoulders sagged.

"We can't just give up." She said softly. "There is too much riding on this. There are too many lives at stake."

"I know this is difficult. I don't want to kill him either and I think might I have a way to get through this. One we can all live with."

Bridger had spent the last hour talking to anyone who would return his calls. He tried to call in every favor he was owed and offered to owe favors to anyone he thought might possibly be interested. He and Ford had examined the complex for any vulnerabilities and could find none. Arthur had sure done his homework.

The clock ticked down the minutes relentlessly. Lucas was counting on him, on someone to do something and Bridger knew, he _knew_ there was no chance the leaders of the UEO would sign that addendum before the hour was out. If Arthur killed enough of the most brilliant minds on the planet then, yes, they might be forced to concede. Especially since the policy put forth by the addendum had been something for which the public had been clamoring for years.

The vast majority of the scientists in attendance would survive, and he knew the UEO could live with that. But Bridger didn't care about the vast majority, or the UEO, or the freedom of information. He cared about Lucas and as he watched helplessly he saw the final minute disappear. He had failed and Lucas was going to pay the price.

He said a silent prayer and turned toward the main plasma screen waiting for the terrorists next message.

"Sir!" O'Neill said. "We're being hacked again, sir."

Arthur Williams appeared on the screen. He was just as pale and ethereal looking live as he had been in the carefully recorded message.

"Your hour has run out." He looked almost pleadingly at the vidlink. "I beg of you, do not test my resolve. I will give you this final opportunity to contact me and advise me that the addendum has been signed."

"O'Neill, open a channel to that message port address." Bridger said suddenly.

"Connection's open, Sir" O'Neill said as Williams reacted to the sight of Bridger.

"Nathan?" He said uncertainly.

"Arthur." Bridger said in a clipped voice. "What are you doing?"

"This is necessary, Nathan." Williams face hardened. "You know how many people are left to die while corporations lock away the keys to their salvation. You know how many people suffer because of these pirates refuse to share knowledge that should belong to the world."

"Arthur, surely, there are other ways." Bridger pleaded. "You've made your point. You've got people's attention. Please, this isn't you, Arthur. You're not a killer."

Williams seemed to be struggling. "I will do what is necessary, Nathan."

Bridger felt his knees weaken as he saw the painful resolve steal over his erstwhile friend's features.

"And I will deal with the consequences, whatever they may be. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

As Bridger watched, horrified Williams stepped out of view and Lucas became visible. His arms were tied behind his back and his mouth was covered with a wide strip of tape. Despite this he appeared to be yelling, though his words were completely unintelligible. Lucas looked at the vidlink with wild, desperate eyes and shook his head furiously.

Bridger heard Williams' voice off camera and saw in the corner of the screen the barrel of the gun pointed at Lucas, who turned his head away from the vidlink and toward the place off-camera where Williams apparently was standing.

"I'm sorry." Williams said. "This is necessary. Don't worry. I don't think it will hurt much."

Lucas looked back at the vidlink and yelled one last time. The word was two syllables and Bridger realized with sickening, crushing guilt that the boy was screaming Captain.

Two shots rang out and all hands on deck flinched at the sound. There were screams and shouts off camera from the helpless hostages.

Lucas' body jerked back violently as the bullets connected and he fell in a mist of blood. The blood settled on his still features like tiny red freckles. Bridger could see them sprinkled over the boy's quiet face. Then the screen was dominated again by the image of Williams.

"I am sorry." He said. "I am sorry that you have made this necessary. You will understand in time. I will give you one more hour to comply and sign the addendum. If you do not, it will be necessary to kill Dr. Stefanek. Please do not make it necessary."

The transmission ended.

Another crushing silence descended on the bridge of the SeaQuest.

"Lucas?" It was Lt. Tim O'Niell who finally broke the silence. "He just…he really…he _killed_…" Tears were streaming down his face even though his expression was one of complete shock.

Bridger turned to regard his crew. "Ford!" He barked, suddenly enraged.

His second in command, jumped, startled out of his own thoughts of grief by his Captain's voice.

"I want you to scour every resource you can find. I want a way into that complex that Williams doesn't know about and won't be guarding."

Ford looked at him and Bridger could practically read his guilty thoughts.

"It's too late for Lucas." Bridger fairly growled. "I know that. But I refuse to let that man profit from his death. I refuse to allow Lucas' death to go down in history as an acceptable loss. Get me into that complex!"

Bridger turned and stormed away. He focused on his anger intently all the way to his quarters. Only then did he let his mind wander. The anger fled and the sorrow rushed in to fill the void. Bridger opened himself up to it. He let the grief have free reign for a long moment. Then he turned his thoughts back to anger…and revenge.

Williams walked ahead of the gurney that bore the body covered by the blood stained sheet. Many of the people in the small huddled groups were crying in grief or in fear. They had watched horrified, some screaming as the boy was shot. Some had called out angrily as they cut the rope tying his hands and placed his body on the gurney but all protests had been silence when their captors had fired menacingly over their heads. Williams sighed at the misery he had caused but marched resolutely ahead.

His men wheeled the gurney into the empty office and William's pulled back the sheet. He stared at the quiet body and then leaned over and removed the tape from the boy's mouth and gently patted his cheek.

Suddenly the boy coughed spasmodically, he jerked away from Williams and then curled his knees up to his chest with a groan. Davilla hurriedly entered the room and began fussing over the boy. She opened his shirt and revealed the body armor and bags of red dye they had attached to his chest.

After a few moments she straightened and smiled, relieved.

"He's got some pretty serious bruises and I think one of his ribs may be broken but he'll live." She collapsed into one of the office chairs. "He'll live."

Williams sighed out his own relief and looked down at the boy still curled protectively around his battered chest. The blue eyes were ice, so cold they burned.

"Captain.." The boy gasped and then coughed. "…Captain Bridger is going to stop you."

"No, young Lucas." Williams said sadly. "Nathan will try."

And he was disconcerted by the boy's fierce and confident grin.


	4. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own SeaQuest. If I did, it would be on the air.**

**Okay, thanks to all who reviewed. I hope you like this next chapter and I hope to have another written and posted in about 6 hours.**

Dr. Jana Stefanekova had screamed involuntarily when Wolenczak was shot. She couldn't help herself. Tears sprang to her eyes as the pitifully small body jerked and fell in a spray of blood.

_I've never seen anyone shot before._ She thought stupidly. _It looks just like the cinema._

Then she heard her own name. She looked up. One of the guards was moving toward her. She hadn't been paying attention to Williams but when she glanced at the horrified gazes directed toward her she understood.

She was next.

It was difficult to breathe suddenly. She gasped air in but it seemed to flutter in her esophagus instead of supply her lungs with oxygen as it aught to do.

The guard stopped in front of her and said in a surprisingly quiet voice, "Get up."

She couldn't speak. She looked up, her eyes bright with tears and terror. The man was frowning down at her and his expression was sympathetic but resigned.

"Please don't make me force you. It will be uncomfortable."

The rational part of Jana's mind told her that the sensible thing to do would be to comply. The man was armed and, even if he wasn't, much stronger than she was. He could stand her on her head if he wanted to. She knew she should get up and go with him but her body wouldn't obey her.

Tears continued to stream down her face, she continued to breathe in useless gasps and now her head was shaking violently back and forth.

_I don't want to die!_

The armed man sighed heavily and grabbed her by the arm. He pulled hard, painfully, obviously expecting resistance and floundered momentarily when Jana's body simply sagged in his grasp.

"Let her go!" someone said to her right. "If you must take someone, take me."

It was a man's voice and Jana was vaguely curious who was offering up their life in her place but by now her breathing really was becoming a problem and points of light surrounded by darkness crowded in her vision.

The armed man was still trying to pull her up but her legs were rubbery and wouldn't hold her. He sighed again and, once again with surprising gentleness, lifted her into his arms like a child and carried her from the room.

"I don't want to die." She whispered furtively. She wasn't really expecting much of a reaction but she had to say it out loud.

The man's only reply was an inarticulate grunt.

She knew she was being pathetic. That she should be braver and face death with dignity but she didn't want to die. She had worked so hard to get her doctorate and establish herself.

_I wasted all that time._ She thought sadly. _I should have been more like Wolenczak. _

Wolenczak was three years her junior, still only sixteen, and rather than waste time jumping through academic hoops as she had done, he went straight to work. Jana had been lucky to be included on the guest list at this gathering, and Wolenczak had been the keynote speaker. Now she would never have the chance to test her own theories and make her own discoveries.

_I don't want to die._ She thought again desperately. _I just got here._

The man was carrying her through the lobby now and toward an office door. Jana was still gasping out silent sobs when suddenly something completely took her breath away.

There, sitting slumped on a sofa looking pained and breathless but very much alive, was Lucas Wolenczak.

He was grinning at the man named Williams. It was a defiant, confident grin and Jana once again felt ashamed of her incapacitating fear. Her head whirled. If Wolenczak was still alive…it had been a fake out. _No wonder it looked like the cinema_. The practical part of her mind commented.

She gasped loudly, her lungs finally demanding she stop holding her breath. The sound brought her entrance to the attention of the three people in the room.

Williams turned toward her. "Dr. Stefanek." He greeted her in a pleasant tone, as thought they were being introduced over cocktails.

"Stefanekova." She corrected automatically.

Williams smiled again. "Oh yes, I almost forgot that you were from an Eastern European country. I apologize but I've forgotten exactly where."

"Slovakia." Jana answered, once again running on automatic.

"Charles, I believe that you can put Dr. Stefanekova down here on the sofa next to Mr. Wolenczak and return to the ball room. My, my but we've managed to pick the two people in the room with probably the most syllables to their names, haven't we?" And Jana found herself feeling a growing annoyance at the man's calm and almost jovial tone.

The man holding her deposited her and actually gave her a brief smile before quickly making his exit.

"I know that what you've just experienced cannot have been pleasant but it was unfortunately, necessary. You may have also deduced why it is _you_ we wish to present as our next victim to the UEO."

"Because I'm the youngest?" Jana answered as the reason suddenly occurred to her. "I mean, the youngest after Mr. Wolenczak? You want them to see you killing off the younger generation."

Williams eyes sparked. "Exactly, you and your young counterparts are the key to the future of science and technology on this planet. If the UEO is convinced that we are robbing them of the world's young bright things, they will be more likely to acquiesce to our demands."

"I'm not a thing!" Jana said suddenly angry. She liked the feeling. The anger made her feel strong.

Williams blinked in surprise. "No, you're not. Unfortunately, however, the leaders of the world see you as just that. Something to be controlled, even traded or sold. Something to be acquired. They see knowledge as leverage. We are using that against them today."

"Look," Wolenczak said then. "Don't get me wrong. I agree with what you want. But this isn't going to work."

"I think you underestimate your importance, young Lucas." Williams said with a quiet smile.

"I think you underestimate the Captain. What you're doing here? It's wrong." Lucas said angrily. "We have processes. The world has a system for…"

"The system is broken!" Williams shouted suddenly and Jana shrank back involuntarily.

"You think I haven't tried the system? You think I just woke up one day and said, 'I want the world to change for the better and the only was I can think of to accomplish this is to take hostages and pretend to kill them until I get what I want.'?"

Williams stalked across the room. "I have spent my life trying to preserve human life. I've traveled the world and fought disease and you know what I've seen? I've seen children dying from diseases that are easily treated and cured but they die because they have no medicine. The medicine is no longer produced because the disease no longer exists in the markets in which producing the medicine would turn a profit."

Williams turned back to the two teenagers, almost desperate.

"The knowledge is there! But the companies won't release it. People, children, die because a company hoards the cure that would save them on the off chance that it might one day be valuable to them again."

Wolenczak smirked, "Uh, yeah. Preacher?" He pointed at Williams. "Meet the choir." And he pointed to himself. "I agree with you, Man. 100. That doesn't make what you're doing here right. The Captain's not just going to sit around and let you do this. He's going to stop you. You might as well just give up."

Wolenczak frowned thoughtfully, "You might get away. I could tell him not to chase you. I mean, you haven't really killed anyone, just taken hostages. I'm pretty sure he'd be willing to just make a show of trying to catch you."

Williams laughed loudly.

"You're going to have to explain to me how you know Nathan. I can tell you know him well. You have absolute faith in him."

"He's my Captain." Wolenczak said simply.

Jana was confused. She was very happy that her breathing had calmed and she was thinking much more clearly but had no idea who this Captain Nathan they were discussing was. She wanted very much to ask but wanted even more for them to continue to ignore her.

Williams turned his attention back to her and looked as if he were about to say something.

No such luck. Might as well ask the question.

"Who is Captain Nathan?" She said before Williams could speak.

Williams smiled. "Nathan Bridger. He's a sometime scientist, sometime sailor. Runs a sub called the SeaQuest, you might have heard of it."

Jana's quick mind flashed through the information it held on the subject of both Capt. Nathan Bridger and the SeaQuest.

"Oh." She said quietly. "I've always wanted to meet him."

She couldn't believe how calmly she had uttered that statement.

Wolenczak turned to her but then gasped in sudden pain and clutched his chest. He was suddenly coughing weakly. The woman who had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room rushed to his side and patted at his chest with a concerned look.

Jana's mind whirled again. This was the most emotionally and mentally confusing situation in which she had ever found herself. These people were their captors. Threatening their lives and now suddenly its all a show and they're treating wounds.

Wolenczak apparently was having none of it.

"Get away from me." He gasped. "You don't…get to hurt someone…then kiss it better." He glared at her. "You..." He had to cough again. "You did this."

"Lucas," the woman said. "If you only knew. You haven't seen the tiny graves…"

"Please leave me alone." Wolenczak said pleadingly. "I might agree with your agenda but I do _not_ agree with your methods. You're not going to convert me. I think you're only trying because you want to feel better about what you're doing which should tell you right there that what you're doing is _wrong_."

The woman sighed sadly. "Yes. What we're doing is wrong." She said with a soft accent. "But it was the only choice."

"There's always another choice." Wolenczak protested weakly.

Williams smiled. "Wrack up a few more decades, young man. Then we'll talk."

Wolenczak only glared in response.

"Young lady." Williams said turning to her and she was oddly grateful that he had chosen to address her in that way. It made her angry.

"My name is Dr. Jana Stefanekova." She said in a voice that sounded much bolder and braver than she actually felt.

Williams bowed apologetically but with a smug smile.

"Young Doctor," he began again. "I am going to leave you here with young Mr. Wolenczak. In approximately 30 minutes it will be necessary to bind you, gag you and dress you in the equipment we recently used on Mr. Wolenczak. Is there anything I can get for you in the meantime?"

Jana couldn't believe it. "Are you serious?"

Williams grimaced. "I would prefer this to be as painless as possible."

"I don't need anything." Jana said simply.

"Very well then." Williams started to turn toward the door and the woman with the accent followed him. "I will leave you now but one of my associates will be guarding the door. Please do not do anything so foolish as try to escape."

Then their two captors were gone and it was just her and Wolenczak. There was a long, heavy silence. Jana had no idea what you were supposed to say in these circumstances.

Finally, Wolenczak broke the silence.

"So, um, I know this is weird but," He tried to shrug and winced instead. "We haven't exactly been introduced."

"Oh, um, I'm Jana." Jana said awkwardly.

"Lucas." He held out his hand tentatively and Jana shook it as gently as possible.

"It hurts." She said simply and even she could hear the dread in her voice.

Lucas gave her a sympathetic, no, empathetic look. "Yeah, actually, it does."

Then he smiled. "But I lived."

Jana choked down a sob and sat without speaking. She was afraid to open her mouth. Afraid she might scream or cry or otherwise humiliate herself.

"So, um, you told Williams you were a doctor." Lucas said at last. "What's your field of study."

"Genetics." Jana answered curtly, still trying to limit the amount of time her mouth was open.

"Oh."

"You?" She asked politely.

Lucas smiled. "I don't really have a field. I'm not a doctor and I think I might have some kind of attention disorder or something. My mind bounces from thing to thing."

Jana didn't know what to say but felt like there should be more talking.

"I was really keen to visit here." She said at last. "The Meyer complex is one of the first underwater facilities to use biological means of oxygen production and carbon monoxide scrubbing."

Lucas jerked as though he were going to sit up straight but then collapsed in gasps and coughs.

Jana looked on helplessly as he regained his breath, cursing the fact there was nothing she could do to help.

"You mean, there is a bio scrubber here?" Lucas finally gasped.

"Yes. 85 of oxygen production comes from the bio scrubber in the east wing. It's really fascinating, actually. Geneticists were able to create a type of algae that consumes hydrogen from water molecules and creates oxygen as a by product. There are separate filtration systems throughout the complex that are basically just rooms full of another design of algae that consumes carbon monoxide and also produces oxygen as a by-product….What?" Jana couldn't understand the expression on Lucas' face.

"I think I just figured out how to get us all out of this." He said triumphantly.


	5. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: SeaQuest isn't mine. Alas.**

**This was originally going to be part of a longer chapter but swanpride expressed interest in this particular aspect of the story. So, I decided to just go ahead and post it, since it was just sitting there. The rest of this chapter will be written and posted soon.**

"Sir?"

Bridger jerked at the sound of Lt. O'Neill's voice. He was in one of the small board rooms and had been deeply engrossed, going over a schematic of the Meyer complex. Again.

"Go ahead, Lt." He said into the com.

"I have Dr. Wolenczak on a vidline for you, sir." O'Neill said flatly.

"What?" Bridger said excitedly. "How did he? Put him through, now!"

The pale physicist looked even more drawn and haggard than usual when he appeared on the screen.

"Dr. Wolenczak, how were you able to get to a vidlink?" Bridger asked quickly.

"What?" Dr. Wolenczak asked confused.

Bridger wasn't expecting that response.

"Weren't you detained with the other attendees?" He asked, confused.

Dr. Wolenczak made a strange sound. "I wasn't at the conference." He said simply.

"You weren't…" Bridger felt his emotions roll. He had barely controlled himself these past 42 minutes. The 42 minutes since he had been forced to sit helpless while Lucas was murdered in front of his own eyes.

Bridger had always disliked Wolenczak. The man was beyond myopic. Perhaps if Bridger hadn't lost his own son, hadn't felt so keenly that particular loss. If he didn't know so completely and thoroughly how important a son truly was, he might have been a bit more understanding of this man's neglect.

Bridger fought angry tears as he thought back to Lucas standing in the shuttle bay, anxious about reuniting with his father. His mind flashed to the nights he had found Lucas asleep in the labs, slaving over his prototype, trying desperately to win his father's approval.

He imagined Lucas arriving at the conference, looking for his father. Finally, asking and being told, most likely by a complete stranger, that his father hadn't bothered to show up. Lucas was dead and he had probably spent his last day in pain, knowing that his father, this worthless, self-centered bastard of a man, had stood him up because he simply couldn't be bothered.

"Bastard." The word leeched out of Bridger's clenched jaw as though it could no longer be contained.

"Excuse me?" Dr. Wolenczak said.

"You Bastard!" Bridger yelled at the screen and the pale man blinked in surprise before flushing angrily.

"What the hell? I lost my _son_ today! How dare you?"

"You never had a son!" Bridger exploded. "You were never, _never_ a father to that boy! You might as well have donated your sperm anonymously. He would have been better off! I can't believe, after all this time, after all he has done…" Bridger faltered the grief and anger warring in his mind "…did, to win your approval. He threw himself into that project because he thought it was what you wanted. He thought that if he could somehow fulfill your dream you'd notice him, be proud of him."

Wolenczak looked as though he'd been slapped.

"I..I..I was conducting some experiments. I was going to go to the…I meant to go…I just…I missed my flight. I was going to go."

Bridger felt his anger dissolve as the man on the other side of the screen burst into tears. He felt his grief threaten to overcome him but successfully fought back.

"I'm sorry." He said at last. "I shouldn't have said those things. I'm…I was upset and very angry that…that I didn't protect Lucas."

"No, it's my fault. I should have been there. I should have protected him. I'm his father and you're right." The man's voice was full of self-disgust. "I never really acted like a father to him. It wasn't your job to protect him, it was mine. I was his father."

"I was his Captain." Bridger said softly.

There was a long silence as the men shared their silent grief.

Finally, Bridger spoke up. "Why did you call?"

Wolenczak sighed a heavy sigh that was almost a sob.

"I saw the vid. I knew he was dead but I somehow thought, I hoped that maybe it was all a mistake. I couldn't help myself." Wolenczak shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry to have bothered you." He made a move as though he would terminate the link.

"Doctor!" Bridger said suddenly.

Wolenczak paused.

"I'm going to get Williams. I'm going to stop him."

Wolenczak sighed again. "It doesn't really matter now, does it?" And he disconnected.

Bridger looked back at the schematic with frustration. There was no way in, the place was sealed up tight. There was no way to end this. Wolenczak was right. What did it matter, really? Lucas was already dead.


	6. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. SeaQuest isn't mine. But since it's just standing here all dusty and what not...**

**Thanks to all the kind reviewers out there. I was originally have Lucas rummaging through air ducts but then realized I'd made him too sick, which is why I came up with Jana in the first place. Now I'm starting to like her though I'm wondering if I should let her live or have her sacrifice herself nobly to save Lucas and the other hostages...hmm.**

**Hope everyone likes this next installment. I wrote it very quickly and may have missed more than my normal amount of errors.**

Jana shook her head. "I should be the one to go. You're hurt."

"You will be, too." Lucas answered curtly and then as he saw the girl's face blanch he regretted it.

"S-sorry. I'm sorry." He almost growled in frustration. "The thing is, I know what I want to do and I'm the one the people on the SeaQuest know. It has to be me."

Jana didn't look happy about it but she nodded in capitulation. "Okay."

"Okay." Lucas grinned now. "I've got the transmitter and receiver from this remote vidlink but we need another. With what I've got I could talk to you or vice versa but.."

"But communication would be one way." Jana interrupted, understanding. "The transmitter sends sound to the receiver but the response is expected to come from the com system network."

She frowned. "Where are we going to get another set?"

"That's where you come in." Lucas said. "They'll show up any minute to get you…um…dressed." He hated the way she flinched but kept going. "When they come I want you to be very, very modest. So modest that you want to be allowed to dress yourself in the armor in the adjacent office, alone. You got it?"

Jana smiled weakly but there was a lot of determination in her silent nod.

Lucas smiled. "Good. Do you need me to show how to remove the components?"

Jana seemed to straighten a little. "Hey, I'm the only person in this room with a doctorate, Mr. Lucas Wolenczak." She said a little haughtily. "I think I can handle it."

Lucas grinned, wanting to continue to distract her from the ever present deadline.

"Well, I am the keynote speaker."

"Please, you think because…"

Jana stopped dead. The door had opened and Williams and the quiet woman were entering carrying the body armor and bags of red liquid. Lucas found himself instinctively standing between her and their captors. Not that it would do any good. Even when he hadn't been chronically short of breath and scarcely able to move without painful twinges they had been able to manhandle him easily.

Williams walked up almost hesitantly to the two teenagers. "Let's not make this difficult." He said with real pleading in his voice.

Lucas looked back at Jana's terrified face. This wasn't _right. _Lucas had been angry before but now, now he was furious. He began to honestly hate the pale man.

"I…I won't put that on in here." Jana said softly but her voice was gaining strength. "I won't take off my clothes with you all watching. Take me into the next room."

Williams seemed to be considering.

"Please." Jana begged. "I'll do it myself, I just, I don't want anyone looking at me."

Lucas couldn't believe it. She actually blushed. He was really going to have to remember to compliment her on this performance later.

Williams made up his mind. "Fine." He said nodding once. "Lisa will take you to the next room and then watch the door while you change. Lisa?"

The woman stepped forward and Lucas felt Jana stepping around him. He shivered.

Jana and Lisa left the room and Williams turned to follow.

"You're going to pay for this." Lucas said bitterly. Hating the fact that Jana was going to be hurt and there was nothing he could do about it.

Williams turned and nodded sadly. "I know you'll find this hard to believe, young Lucas, but I am already paying for this. I do not enjoy the position into which I have been placed."

Lucas wanted to argue but knew there was no use. The man was a fanatic. He was insane.

Williams seemed to be waiting for a response. He paused a good minute and then turned to exit.

Lucas couldn't help himself. "I hope I'm there." He snarled.

Williams stiffened then let his shoulders sag but didn't turn back.

Lucas waited, dreading, wondering what was going on with Jana. He barely knew her but he from what he could see, under more normal circumstances they would have been friends. Maybe they were friends. He knew he was worried about her.

The pain in his chest spiked again and made him gasp, which made him cough, which made his legs shake and he sat down as gingerly but quickly as he could manage. He had just settled his breathing again when he heard the shots.

He clenched his fists and teeth, and waited for the gurney.

Jana had been surprised when Lucas had stepped in front of her. It was almost funny. He was three years her junior, a full inch shorter and badly injured but _he _was going to protect _her_. It had broken through her fear and reminded her of the plan. Just having a goal made it easier to push the shooting back from the forefront of her mind.

_Just don't think about it._

Minutes later she was alone in the office and scrambling with the vidlink console and the remote viewer, trying to find the components she needed quickly but without making it apparent the equipment had been tampered with.

She placed the components in her pocket and then turned to the body armor.

She felt sick looking at it, knowing what putting it on meant.

_Snap out of it_. She ordered herself. She took off her blouse and put on the amazingly pliable armor. She intellectually understood the technology behind nano-based body armor but actually putting it on…well, it felt so very flimsy. She actually had to struggle to secure the buttons of her blouse, her hands were shaking too much.

She tried to walk to the door but she couldn't. She couldn't make herself do it.

The door opened anyway, as she had known it would. The woman, Lisa, checked the armor and the bags. She nodded satisfied and then silently but with an apologetic look walked behind Jana and bound her arms.

Jana was really feeling funny. _I'm going to faint._ She thought, panicked.

He legs shook violently and she collapsed to her knees.

Lisa had finished with her arms and was suddenly holding Jana in a consoling and gentle embrace.

"Don't worry, Sweetie. It will be over so fast. Shh."

_I can do this. I can do this. _Jana thought repeatedly.

"I can do this." She whispered and let Lisa pull her to her feet.

"I am sorry, Ninita." Lisa said and put a large piece of tape over Jana's mouth.

Jana let Lisa lead her through the lobby to the ball room. When they brought her to the stage she couldn't keep her feet. Lisa had her kneel. Jana tried to separate herself from what was happening. Tears spilled from her eyes. She was so scared. The gun pointed at her.

She was afraid of the pain. She was afraid something would go wrong with the armor. She was..

She barely heard the shot before something was crushing into her chest and driving all air out. She couldn't breathe and then another blow. The world had been swimming for those few instants but now it was gone.

She didn't even feel herself fall.

Bridger watched the execution alone from the board room. He saw the green eyes spill tears but only thought of the flash of blue. He watched the girl await her doom in apprehensive silence but heard Lucas' muffled scream, "Captain."

He watched the body collapse in an undignified heap, reddish brown hair spilling over the still face but all he saw was strange red freckles and a blond brow.

Bridger glanced down again at Dr. Stefanekova's profile. The young woman smiled shyly out from her profile picture. She seemed so very young. 19. Another child. What had happened to Arthur?

Bridger slammed his fist down on the conference table. Williams had given them a reprieve. One hour until the next victim would be announced. Two hours till the next execution.

Bridger ran his hands raggedly through his hair. He had found a way in but without some kind of gatekeeper, a man inside, it was impossible. Every other way was sealed up tight by Arthur's impeccable security force.

He was helpless. All this power at his command; the most powerful ship in the ocean, and he was helpless.

Lucas looked up anxiously as they brought in the gurney with the stained sheet. He started to rise and then fell back with an uncontrollable gasp. For not the first time, Lucas cursed his battered ribs. The woman, Lisa, had frowned at his gasp and raspy breathing but then turned her attention to Jana.

Lucas gulped a bit when he saw the girl's face. It was pale, too pale. He wondered for a horrible second if it had all been a lie. Then Jana responded to Lisa's patting. She gasped in a shuddering breath and started coughing convulsively. Lisa reached out to hold her but Jana jerked away from her, terrified, almost falling from the gurney.

Lucas grimaced in pain but forced himself to stand and grasped Jana's hand. Lisa frowned but allowed him to comfort her before insisting that she check Jana's chest.

Jana blushed a deep red as Lisa swiftly lifted her blouse and the body armor to reveal her chest and bra. She glanced up at both Lucas and Williams and tried to fight Lisa to pull it back down.

Lucas almost laughed. The girl had almost died but was embarrassed to have her bra exposed.

Jana gasped several times in pain as Lisa poked experimentally at her chest before nodding satisfied and, after removing the body armor and 'blood' bags, lowered her blouse.

Jana smoothed the blouse repeatedly in a nervous fashion before rolling over and trying to get off the gurney. Before she could get very far into the process, Williams was there and had picked her up. Jana tried to pull back from the man but the action caused her to gasp again and she went almost limp with pain.

Williams laid her down on the sofa and Lucas gingerly settled himself down next to her.

Williams turned to Lisa who nodded. "She'll be fine. Bruises only. I don't think any of her ribs are broken."

"Good." Williams said. "I wish there were something I could give you for the pain. I only have morphine we packed for emergency wound treatment. You can have some if you like. It might make the rest of this ordeal a bit more bearable. "

"No thank you." Jana said quietly.

Williams looked a question at Lucas.

"Go to hell." Was all he got in reply. Lucas was still seething over the angry red blotches he'd seen on Jana's chest.

"As you wish." Williams sighed and he and his sidekick left the room.

"Lucas."

"Shhh." Lucas said quickly. "It's okay, now. The worst part is over. You're okay."

"I got them." Jana said and pulled the vidlink components out of her pocket. "I got them." She repeated and she smiled.

"I'm impressed." Lucas said smiling, and he was.

"And I'm the one who's going." Jana replied and there was a hard edge to her voice.

Lucas shook his head. "We've gone over this. First, it's my plan. Second, I'm the one the SeaQuest knows. Third, it's my plan."

"Listen!" Jana insisted. "You look terrible. I'm sore, yes, but you heard the dragon lady. My ribs aren't broken. I can already breath a lot better than you are now. You won't make it ten feet in those ducts and you know it. When I get to where I can patch into the communications network and send out a message, if I need you to convince SeaQuest to trust us, all I have to do is relay your voice via the vidlink transmitters we pulled."

Lucas struggled against the decision.

"It's dangerous." He said at last, almost apologetically.

"I know that." Jana almost snapped. "I can do it and you can't. Look at you." Jana pointed to a rather garish mirror on the south wall.

Lucas recoiled from his appearance. He was horribly pale with bright red blotches high on his cheeks. He hadn't noticed that he was breathing through his mouth but his reflection looked like a landed fish. He turned his gaze back to Jana. Yes, she looked pale. Yes, she looked afraid. But she didn't look weak or feverish and she definitely seemed to be more mobile than him.

"Fine." Lucas finally conceded. "But we stay in contact with the vidlink radios. I can help guide you through the ducts and talk you through the process of dislodging the bio scrubber."

Jana took a deep breath as though she were steeling herself up and then nodded once, decisively.

She looked up at the hole in the ceiling that opened into the air duct system and Lucas heard her faintly whisper. "I can do this."

"Jana, you can do this." Lucas said with as much conviction as he could manage. They had decided that since they were broadcasting to each other through two separate transmitters and receivers, they would keep both channels open at all times. Lucas had been giving Jana instructions but was becoming more and more concerned with the sound of her labored breathing.

"Jana?" Lucas questioned when she didn't reply.

"Fine." Jana gasped. "Crawling." She said curtly and in a breathless voice. "How much…farther?"

"Not far..ah.." Lucas couldn't surpress a brief exclamation as a sudden and unexpected stab of pain shot through his chest.

"Lucas?" Jana's voice sounded concerned, almost scared.

"Fine." Lucas grunted. He was freezing and it was growing difficult to keep his teeth from chattering. He lifted his shirt and noted with dismay that one of the areas that had formerly been just blackened with a large and impressive bruise had now taken on a troubling red tinge. He had read something about this. It wasn't septicemia. It could cause septicemia though. Oh boy. That was just what he didn't need.

"I'm fine." Lucas repeated into the receiver. "You're not far. Just about another 100 meters and you're there." _Oh please, hurry, Jana._ Lucas found himself thinking. _I think I'm in trouble._

Jana really, really didn't like tight spaces. She kept suppressing the urge to scream every time she realized it was physically impossible for her to turn around. _Just keep going. Keep going. You can do this. You can do this._

"I can do this." She whispered, then said louder. "Lucas, how much farther?"

"Just…another 10…10 meters…just…just a little…a little farther."

Lucas' voice was raspy and faint and Jana knew it wasn't the makeshift radio. She had seen the pale color, the feverish cheeks and the thin sheen of sweat. Something was definitely, _seriously_ wrong with that boy. He needed real medical help and Jana was his only chance to get it. She had to get herself in gear.

Her palms and knees were raw. Her muscles ached from the unusual strain. Her chest was on fire, but she had to keep going. She could see the light. She was almost..almost..THERE!

Jana allowed herself to tumble gracelessly out of the vent and lay gasping for a long moment, luxuriating in the feeling of having her limbs splayed in all directions.

"Lucas!" She exclaimed weakly. "I'm here! I did it."

"Good job." Lucas rasped. "Need help?"

"Nope." Jana replied. "Got it."

She reached over to the hydraulic cooling tube that housed the liquid crystal wiring for the communications system. She smiled tiredly.

"Piece of cake."

Tim O'Niell sat at his post. He was over the initial shock of seeing Lucas' execution. He was trying to focus on his work but found himself saying Hail Mary's over and over in the back of his head. He'd even noticed that he'd started translating the prayer into one or two of the many languages he spoke fluently.

Lucas.

O'Niell blinked and glanced furtively around the bridge to see if anyone had noticed the tear he had let escape.

He was just a kid. No, not just a kid. He was an extraordinary kid. A good kid.

_He was my friend._ Tim thought sadly.

Something caught his attention. A strange signal that was…

"Oh my…Captain!?" O'Niell connected himself to the com system in the room Bridger had taken over since…well, the room he'd taken over.

"Yes, Lt?"

"Captain, I'm getting a signal from the complex."

"Patch it through." Bridger sounded intrigued.

O'Niell listened in, after all, the Captain hadn't specified it be a private channel and maybe he would need it to be translated.

"…hostage but we are not dead. We have a plan to get personnel into the complex undetected. Please respond. Hello? This is Dr. Jana Stefanekova. I am trying to contact UEO sub SeaQuest on behalf of Lucas Wolenczak. We have been taken hostage but we are not dead. We have a plan to get…"

"Lt. open a channel to respond to this message immediately." Bridger practically shouted. "I'm heading to the bridge."

O'Niell smiled for the first time in what had seemed like years. "Yes, sir!"


	7. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own SeaQuest. I'm not making any money. This is just for fun. Don't shoot.**

**Okay, I need an index or glossary of fanfic terms because while I've figured out what a Mary Sue is, I'm still lost on the whole "elffic" "elffish" thing. Anyway, I was worried that Jana might be a Mary Sue because people seem to hate them...a lot. So, I took this online test and apparently Jana is an Anti-Mary Sue, which makes me feel better. Apparently, she's an OC as one of the reviewers stated, which it turns out, means Original Character. That one threw me by being incredibly simple and making entirely too much sense, lol.**

**Seriously, where is the fanfic/English dictionary? :)**

Bridger reached the bridge only slightly out of breath and noted that the message was now playing on the loud speakers.

The voice sounded like it was growing more and more frightened with every second.

"Captain." Lt. O'Neill said, when he noted Bridger's appearance. "Sir, I've verified the signal. It's on a secure UEO net feed and the feed was accessed with Lucas' authorization."

Bridger smiled fiercely. "Open a response channel, Tim."

Lt. O'Neill beamed in reply. "Open, sir."

The girl was about half way through the repeating message when Bridger interrupted.

"Dr. Stefanekova? This is the SeaQuest. What is your status?" He said.

The voice trembled. "SeaQuest? Are you him?" Bridger didn't know how to respond but was saved the trouble when the voice hurried on, rising a bit hysterically.

"Are you Captain Nathan? I mean, Captain Bridger? Are you Lucas' Captain Bridger?"

"Yes," Bridger smiled. "I'm Lucas' Captain Bridger."

The girl sounded like she had burst into tears.

"He won't answer!" She cried. "He was talking me through it and then he stopped talking and I don't _do_ this. I'm not…this isn't what I do. I sit in my lab. I don't run around getting shot and crawling through tunnels. I'm not _good_ at it. I was okay when he was talking to me and I wasn't all alone. But it's dark and he _stopped talking_! I can hear him breathing and he sounds so bad. They broke his _ribs!_"

Bridger sucked in a fierce breath at that but tried to remain calm. The girl was quickly disintegrating into hysteria. He needed her to calm down and he couldn't do that if he were upset himself.

"Jana. Jana." He said softly. "May I call you Jana?"

The voice laughed hysterically. "You can call me anything you want. Just please come get us."

"Okay, Jana. That's what I'm going to do." Bridger soothed. "I just need you to tell me how. You said in your message you had a way in for us, is it through the bio scrubber?"

There was a pause and then a deep breath and a gasp of pain.

"Jana?" Bridger asked, suddenly concerned.

"Nothing." The girl gasped. "Just my chest. Really sore. Sorry. I'm sorry I got all crazy like that. I just…I'm no good at this."

"I think you're doing just fine." Bridger soothed.

"No, I'm wasting time. Yes, it's the scrubber. Lucas said you were smart. I'm ready to dislodge it, then you can come in and get us. Please hurry. They could walk in on Lucas any second and then they'd know I wasn't there and I can't get back. He's not talking to me anymore. You have to bring a doctor."

The girl was getting upset again.

"It's okay, Jana. We're coming. We're on our way. I have the very best doctor in the world on my boat. Lucas is going to be fine." Bridger said the last sentence with a fierce conviction.

"Okay. I'm okay. I think I should wait though. Until you're right outside because once the scrubber's off the only oxygen generation will be the carbon monoxide scrubber's and they only account for about 15 percent."

Bridger did a quick calculation in his head. Yes, there would definitely be time to unload several shuttles before they had to replace the scrubber. The bio-scrubber had been the only opening Williams hadn't guarded, probably because he knew it couldn't be dislodged without help from the inside without danger of the hydrogen rich algae exploding. Bridger smiled. _Good thinking, Kiddo._

"Alright, Jana. You stay on the line with me. When I'm outside with the shuttles, I'll let you know and you can dislodge the scrubber, okay?"

The girl took in a few shallow breaths then said, "Okay, but please hurry. I think Lucas is really bad. I think he has osteomyelitis, although it might be full blown septicemia by now. Do you understand? If he's septic he's got hours at most."

The frantic tinge was back in her voice.

"Jana," Bridger said calmly, softly. "It's okay. You're going to be okay. Lucas is going to be okay. You did a good job. Now, I need to ask you a few questions. How many people does Williams have?" Bridger signaled to Ford who nodded his understanding and started to send out the necessary commands to assemble a strike force.

"31." Jana replied.

Bridger raised his eyebrows and shared a look with Ford.

"That's a pretty specific number, Jana. Are you sure?"

"There were three guards to each hostage group and four hostage groups in the ball room. That's 12. There were four guards in the lobby, which makes 16 and three guards at all the possible entry points. I heard Williams mention that. There are only four entry points but Williams isn't guarding the bio scrubber so that means another 9, which is 25 and then there are four guards running patrols, and of course, Williams and the dragon lady. 31."

As the girl listed off not only the number of the troops but their locations Bridger noted that the simple calculations seemed to have an extremely calming effect. Good. He would try to keep her talking on this line of thought.

"So, all the hostages are in the ball room."

"All…all except Lucas." She said finally and, while her voice was no longer frantic, Bridger could tell this wasn't a road to go down.

"Jana?" He said. "You're being very helpful. Did you notice the guns?"

There was a choking noise on the other end.

"Jana?" Bridger asked, worried.

"The…There…the guards have different guns. I don't know anything about guns but they're big. I think they might be machine guns? That's not what they used to…he has a different gun. It's small." The voice was hushed and terrified now.

_Oh crap._ Bridger thought. He was asking a girl who had been shot to describe guns. Brilliant.

"It's okay, Jana. You're going to be okay. We're coming." He said trying to sooth her fears again.

"Please hurry." The words came out in a hushed but desperate whisper. "I took too long. He stopped talking and I freaked out. I took too long. Please hurry."

"Jana, we're coming. Don't you worry about that."

Ford tapped Bridger's shoulder and signaled they were ready.

"Jana." Bridger said into the headset mike. "Jana, we're on the way. I'm going to have my friend Lt. O'Neill stay on the line with you and let you know when I'm knocking at the door, okay?"

"Okay."

"Jana, you did great. Can't wait to meet you." Bridger ripped off the headset a flung it into his chair. He looked at O'Neill who nodded his understanding.

Ford had paused a few extra moments before following the Captain. He was arranging to meet Dr. Westphalen on the was. As he left the bridge he heard Lt. O'Neill speaking in what he assumed was the girl's native tongue.

"Ahoj, Janka. Volam sa, Tim. Ako sa mate?..Nebojte sa. Uz ideme. Vsetko bude v poriatku... "

Ford smiled thinking that speaking the girl's language would go pretty far toward calming her down. Tim was a wonder. Ford tried not to think about what she had said before, _"They broke his ribs."_

His jaw clenched and he had successfully turned his attention to the task at hand when he was approached by the Doc, uh, Dr. Westphalen, that is, the ships chief medical officer.

"Jonathan?" She asked with pleading wet eyes, "Is it true? Lucas is alive?"

Ford smiled. "Yes, it's true, but according to our source he's injured. She said something…um…she said he had broken ribs and a strange word. I recognized the osteo to have something to do with bones but I don't remember exactly what it was."

"Osteomyelitis?" Dr. Westphalen asked and Ford didn't like her expression.

"Yes. That was it." He admitted reluctantly.

"Oh dear." She said in that oh so very British way.

"What is it?" Ford asked apprehensively.

"Well, it's very rare, drat the boy. Unfortunately, it's also very dangerous." Dr. Westphalen almost rushed headlong into a petty officer and Ford had to pull her quickly out of the way. "Oh, thank you, Jonathan. Perhaps I should explain on the shuttle."

Ford agreed and the two hurried the rest of the way to the shuttle bay. Once they were in the shuttle and heading toward the complex, Westphalen continued her explanation.

"You know that bones, well, they basically have a soft center. Sometimes, when a bone breaks, the bone marrow can become infected. This causes puss to build up _insid_e the bone. It's very painful but is easily treated by anti-biotics and, as long as it doesn't go untreated for a long period of time, it doesn't do any lasting damage."

Ford sighed, relieved but his relief was short lived.

"The problem will be if he has become septic."

Ford suddenly and vividly remembered the girl's frightened words. _If he's septic, he's got hours at most._

"Jonathan, what is it?" asked Westphalen warily, not missing the shift in his mood.

"The girl, our source, her name's Dr. Stefanekova. She said something about septic. She also said something about septi..septicemia?" Ford struggled to remember.

"Septicemia? Oh dear."

There it was again. Ford really didn't like it when the Doc said that. "What is it?"

"Septicemia? It's blood poisoning. It's a much bigger problem." Westphalen shook her hands in a frustrated gesture. "Can't we go any faster? When will we get to this bio scrubber?"

"We're not taking that entrance." Ford replied.

"What?" Westphalen was not happy.

"I'm sorry, Doc, but we're using the front door."

"But.." She started and then stopped. "You mean, we're going to piddle about out here and wait for the complex to be secure, don't you?"

Ford winced at her accusatory tone.

"I'm sorry, Doc, but I can't authorize a med team until the scene has been secured." She started to protest and he threw up his hands to forestall her. "You know me, Doc, you know how much I care about Lucas and you will be in that building the second it is safe for you to be…"

"I don't give a tinker's cus about _safe_, Jonathan." Westphalen spit at him.

"I know. I'm sorry, but this is the only way. These rules exist for a reason. What if you can't get your equipment in through the other entrance? What if you have to waste more time getting back out and then circling to the front? What if you get injured and we have to bring another med team from the boat and they have to treat you in addition to Lucas and any others who might be injured? I know it feels backward but it's the way it has to be."

Westphalen looked rebellious but finally nodded. "You're right. I just…I can't stand just sitting here waiting."

"I know." Ford suppressed the urge to tap his foot impatiently. He looked at his watch and wondered if the Captain and the strike team had entered the building. Ford had wanted to take point but the Captain was right that his prior experience with Williams made him the best choice. He pounded his fists lightly on his knees, in silent frustration and waited for news.


	8. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own SeaQuest. If, and this is very unlikely, you do own SeaQuest and you're upset that I'm writing stories, well, you shouldn't have cancelled the show, now should you have?**

**Okay, woohoo! and here is the climax. Everything after this is going to be aftermath like Lucas' Daddy issues beind addressed. There will also be the obligatory sick bay bit and I have to send off Jana somehow. But this is the part for which everyone has really been waiting. Hope it was worth the wait.**

"Okay, Jana." Jana heard the voice of the Captain again. "We're ready for you to dislodge the bio-scrubber."

"Dobre, som pripravena. Moment." Jana said and then realized she was still speaking Slovak. "Oh, sorry! I mean, I'm ready. Just a minute."

Jana entered the release command. The scrubber had to be released briefly on a regular basis to allow crews to clean the housing and make sure no foreign contaminants damaged the algae colony, so dislodging it momentarily to allow the shuttles to unload should be easy. But the system did not respond to the command. Instead it flashed up a security code request.

"Oh no." Jana felt her stomach floating up toward her throat, in a way reminiscent of steep falls on roller coasters.

"Jana?" the Captain asked.

"It's not working! It wants a security code." Jana tried desperately not to panic. Lucas and all the other hostages needed her to stay calm. Then it struck her. "The emergency release! There is an emergency release in case of danger with reaction to hydrogen in algae." Jana said quickly, noticing that in her hurry she had not bothered to carefully think out the information in English. She just wanted to get the point across. She tried harder to speak intelligibly.

"I can cause the emergency release but it won't temporarily dislodge the scrubber. It will jettison it completely. There is an emergency supply of oxygen that will kick in automatically in five minutes but an alarm will sound."

There was a long pause before the Captain's voice came across. "Do it."

"Okay, I will not be able to speak to tell you it is done. You must pay attention."

"Wait, Jana, why won't you be able to speak?"

"The room will flood. I am faking an emergency situation. The entire area will flood after release. Don't worry. Once the bio scrubber is jettisoned the emergency system will establish equalizing pressure. I've managed to shut off all of the alarms outside of this area. They won't here until the emergency oxygen system activates."

"Jana…" the Captain started to speak but Jana pulled the receiver apart. She was terrified and knew it would be very easy for the gentle voice to talk her out of this. Lucas was dying and it was her fault. She had wasted so much time being afraid and letting her fear delay her. He was just a boy and he was _not_ going to die because of her. She just needed to do this very fast, before she could think too much about it.

She typed in the necessary commands to confuse the computer and then waited the terrible long seconds it took for the system to begin jettisoning the bio scrubber. Alarms sounded and a melodic, calm voice advised all personnel to evacuate the area until pressure had been re-established.

Jana giggled, slightly hysterical with fear. _I would if I could, Lady._ She thought and then gasped as cold water rushed over her ankles. Her heart began to beat impossibly fast. The water was rising so quickly.

_This was a bad idea. This was a bad idea. This was a bad idea._

Jana thought the words over and over as the water rose past her height and she started floating to the ceiling. It was so cold. Her breath was coming in violent gasps, her teeth chattering painfully. She was crying in terror pressed against the ceiling. She took one last breath and then the water and the ceiling met and there was no air left to breath.

The freezing water was stabbing into her eyes and ears so painfully she wanted to scream. She shut her eyes and tried to cover her ears but she realized that her limbs were sluggish in obeying her commands and completely numbed by the cold.

How long? How long had the room been flooded? Was the bio scrubber gone? She couldn't open her eyes again and subject them to the freezing water to look. Her lungs screamed for oxygen.

She remembered lessons as a child. Your lungs only actually use a percentage of the oxygen in each breath. She thought about this and tried to force her lungs to take another breath of the air she was holding in them. It seemed to work.

Then air bubbled forcefully out of the vent and she tried desperately to move toward it but she was being pulled down instead of up by the force of the air against the water. She tried to make her lungs recycle her held breath again but it didn't seem to be working anymore. Her arms flopped lazily instead of clawing her toward the air. She could see it. It was right out of reach.

It was coming slowly closer. She couldn't hold the breath anymore. Her lungs were too insistent. She opened her mouth at almost the exact moment the air finally reached her.

She breathed in delicious oxygen and freezing water simultaneously. Her lungs reacted, coughing to expel the water and drink in more oxygen. It was hell on her battered chest and ribs, she was sure, but she was so numb with the cold of the water she couldn't feel the pain.

She managed to get to her feet, practically climbing the equipment, and looked through the viewing plates toward the scrubber. It was gone! The system was establishing positive pressure in the holding area and, as she watched, a shuttle erupted from the water.

_I did it!_ She thought elated. _I did it._

She collapsed on the floor of the control room and managed a weak but ecstatic laugh that dissolved into a coughing fit. The door to the control room opened and Jana looked up at the man who entered.

He was older and her very first impression of him was that he looked kind. He had a graying beard and bright blue eyes. His skin had deep wrinkles, the kind you only get from being tanned by the sun...a _lot._ The wrinkles more than anything else were what caused Jana's second impression; that this was a man who had spent more of his life doing, than talking.

All of this occurred to Jana in the few brief seconds the man's eyes scanned the room before falling on her, lying on the floor.

"Jana." He said with concern.

Jana coughed. "Fine." She said and her voice sounded strangely deep and scratchy to her. "Hurry. Lucas." And she pointed to the air shaft in the corner.

Bridger smiled fiercely. "Good girl. Don't worry. We've got it from here."

Jana smiled. For some reason, she had utter and complete confidence that the man was correct. There was something in his voice that made her feel that everything was going to be okay. That he was going to _make _it okay.

She vaguely heard him shouting commands and tried to pay attention. Something about the air ducts and taking positions. She heard her name. She thought he was saying to take her back to the ship and she wanted to protest.

She didn't want to leave until she knew Lucas and the others were okay, her mind flashed to the anonymous voice that had offered to take her place. She wanted to stay. But everything felt so heavy. She was so tired. She hadn't realized she had closed her eyes again until it was too late.

Bridger watched as the UEO medic checked the girl over. "I think she'll be okay. She'll need treatment but as long as we keep her warm, she'll be fine until we get her to sickbay and the doctor's can have a look at her."

Bridger nodded. "I'm with the team going to the lobby. You and Evans take her back to the ship. Everyone else, you know your orders. Let's go!"

There was a chorus of "Aye, Aye Captain". Bridger crawled into the air ducts and began retracing Jana's steps back to Lucas. _Hang in there, Kiddo. We've almost got you._

The hour was up. Williams had generously given the UEO an extra hour when they had finally contacted him and requested more time to consider the addendum.

_I only had to kill two children for them to take time away from their bureaucratic prattling._

He thought bitterly. Speaking of children…

Williams turned and looked at the office where Wolenczak and Stefanek, no, Stefanekova, were being held. He hadn't liked the way the boy had looked when they had brought the girl back to the room.

Williams wasn't a medical doctor. He was an engineer. But he had seen enough sickness and death as he traveled the most inhospitable corners of the world, pathetically trying to improve living conditions one irrigation system or air and water purification system at a time.

The boy had looked too pale. It wasn't just the strain of the situation, he was sure of it. Williams hesitated and then made up his mind, he'd check on the boy before contacting the UEO with the name of his next "victim".

As he crossed the room, the announcement speakers began blaring an alarm.

A calm, female voice notified them that the oxygen generation system had failed. It advised them to calmly evacuate the complex in an orderly fashion and reassured them that the emergency oxygen system had been activated and would provide them with ample time to exit the complex.

Williams cursed as gunfire erupted all around him. He ran the last few steps to the office door and slammed it shut behind him.

Wolenczak was lying on the floor. He appeared to have passed out but the girl was no where to be seen. Williams cursed again and searched behind the sparse furnishings. She was definitely not in the room.

As he glanced at Wolenczak's still form again he noticed something in the boys hand and knelt down to pick it up. It was some kind of mechanical device, it looked like a transmitter.

The information clicked into place in Williams' mind like the tumblers of a rusty lock, and he realized what had happened. He almost smiled as he considered that perhaps it had been a mistake to leave two of the brightest young people on the planet unsupervised. Then he heard the shuffling movement in the air duct above.

He pulled out his weapon and, grabbing the unconscious boy from the floor, backed away to the lobby door.

Bridger kicked out the vent screen and flipped agilely out of the duct, landing softly on the floor. As he looked up he saw Arthur backing out of the room, holding Lucas.

Bridger grunted in anger. Lucas looked horribly pale and drawn. His skin was an unearthly shade of grey and he sagged pitifully in Arthur's rough grasp.

"Arthur!" Bridger angrily shouted. "Arthur stop!"

His old friend turned to him with angry, frantic eyes.

"You've ruined it!" He screamed still backing out of the office. "You've ruined everything! Do you know what was at stake, Nathan? You can't possibly understand!"

"Sir," Bridger heard a voice in his ear piece. "All other hostiles are neutralized."

Bridger acknowledged the communication as he slowly followed Arthur out of the office door.

"Arthur." Bridger tried to make his voice calm and soothing. "It's over. Your people are either dead or in custody. Let the boy go."

His old friend made no reply. He looked desperately around the room, taking in the sight of heavily armed, uniformed men standing over either kneeling or prone figures. Bridger saw the man's eyes linger over the body of a woman for a long moment. She had taken several body shots and was very clearly dead.

"Lisa!" Arthur screamed and shut his eyes as though against a sudden pain.

"Arthur, please…" Bridger started again but the man interrupted, speaking softly.

"All for nothing. It was all for nothing. It will never change. I didn't change anything. I didn't save anyone."

"Arthur, you can save someone right now. Look at that boy, Arthur! He's dying and you can save him. All you have to do is let go."

The man Nathan had once counted as one of his dearest friends finally stilled. Arthur looked at the boy hanging limply over his arm as though he couldn't fathom how he'd gotten there.

Slowly, gently, he lowered Lucas to the ground.

"I'm so sorry, Nathan." He sobbed now. "I just wanted to help them."

"I know." Bridger soothed. "It's over. It's over. Just put the gun down."

Arthur lifted the gun to his head.

"Arthur DON'T!" Bridger screamed.

The man only smiled through his tears and whispered. "I'm sorry."

Then he pulled the trigger and fell, dead before he hit the floor.

Bridger stood frozen in horror for a brief second but then ran to the unconscious Lucas. Once again, Lucas' face was sprinkled with a fine mist of red and Bridger instinctively tried to wipe the blood away.

"Ford!" He yelled into his com. "The building is secure. Get Kristin in here, now. Lucas is bad."

He held onto Lucas' hand and his heart sped when he felt how cold it was.

"Hang in there, Kiddo. You're almost home. I've got you. Hang in there."

It took eight agonizing minutes for the shuttle to dock and Kristin to run the distance to Lucas' side. She immediately had him on a gurney and headed back to the shuttle and the SeaQuest.

Bridger ran alongside the gurney as Kristin shouted orders to the waiting med team in sickbay. He never let go of Lucas' hand.


	9. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: Yada, yada, yada...**

**Okay, I'm going out tonight so I won't have time to write anything. So, I decided to go ahead and post the part of the next chapter that I've already written. I really hope that I didn't write Bridger and Kreig out of character in the final scene. Please let me know if you think I did. Thanks to wolenczak2004 for your reviews, I have to thank you here because I can't reply to them, lol.**

"Nathan, I'm so very sorry but I need you to step away." Kristin said through clenched teeth as she continued to examine Lucas. The portable MRI wand had confirmed her fear that he had several broken ribs one of which appeared to be infected.

"Doctor, he's hypotensive." The medic, what was his name? Bayer? Yes, like the aspirin.

"Yes, I know he's hypotensive, that's why I'm trying to get some fluid in him." Kristin said tensely.

She carefully inserted a urine catheter, thankful that Lucas would be unaware of the procedure and grunted in dismay at the result.

"Tell Daniels that he's not making urine and to be ready to put him on dialysis. I also want them to be prepared to insert a central venous catheter as soon as we arrive."

The monitor began to beep an alarm and Kristin looked up.

"His pulse/ox is dropping." Bayer said.

Kristin cursed and saw Nathan react with shock and fear.

"His lungs are failing. We need to intubate, now. Make a hole at his head, people!" Kristin shouted as she made her way to her supplies. She really didn't like the prospect of intubating Lucas in the moving sub but didn't have much choice.

She struggle to pass the tube. "Bayer. Cricoid pressure." She ordered curtly. She sighed as the mirror reflected the tube passing safely past the vocal chords and down the esophagus. She attached the ventilator then handed it off to Bayer while she verified the tube was feeding air into Lucas' lungs and not his stomach.

"Good." She said, satisfied and gratefully watched the pulse/ox number climb.

There was a heavy silence as everyone in the shuttle willed it to move faster.

"Kristin, what is it? What's wrong with him?" Nathan asked after a long pause.

"Lucas has broken ribs." She tried to explain the situation as succinctly as possible. "His bone marrow was exposed and became infected and infected his blood stream. That has caused inflammation throughout his body but also hypotention, low blood pressure. His blood isn't circulating sufficiently which is damaging his organs. They've been without the necessary blood flow for too long now and are starting to fail."

She saw the near panic in his eyes and rushed on.

"Are you saying he's going to die?" Nathan asked desperately.

"No." Kristin said fiercely. "I'm going to get him home, get him on dialysis and a ventilator and then pump him full of fluids and anti-biotics."

She tried her best to smile reassuringly.

"Lucas will be fine, Nathan. I'm not letting him go anywhere, believe you me."

She looked down at her little prodigy and murmured under her breath.

"You're not going anyway, young man."

There was a sudden jarring as the shuttle finally docked with the SeaQuest. Kristin and Bayer rushed down the halls toward the waiting team with Bridger close on their heels.

"Sir."

Bridger turned to face a briskly approaching Lt. Kreig.

"Sir, what's the news? How's he doing?"

Bridger sighed, feeling exhausted. It felt like days since Lucas had departed on the shuttle that morning but had actually only been 11 hours.

"He's stabilized for the moment and Dr. Westphalen is trying to ascertain the extent of the damage to his organs."

Kreig gulped convulsively.

"I…you know when they showed that vid, I didn't know what to think, what to do. Now he's back and I just…" Kreig's voice seemed to fade but Bridger caught the last whispered statement. "I don't want to lose another friend."

It occurred to Bridger how close Lucas and Kreig had become, almost brothers.

_Just like Robert._

Bridger began to look at Kreig with new eyes. Benjamin Kreig had been the best friend of Bridger's son, Robert. Robert had disappeared years ago and was thought dead, though his body was never recovered. It suddenly struck Bridger that Lucas had stepped in to fill a void left in his life as a sort of surrogate son but at the same time had done something similar with Lt. Kreig.

Bridger reached out to the man now and clasped his shoulder reassuringly.

"He'll be alright, Lt. He's a fighter, he's got the best doctor on the planet looking after him and he's without a doubt the most stubborn kid I've ever met."

Kreig looked surprised for a moment, either by the words or the Captain's uncharacteristic familiarity, but then he grinned. Then he laughed.

Bridger couldn't help but laugh himself and soon many of the sickbay staff were staring in open amazement of the sight of the Captain and Lt. Kreig hanging onto each other and laughing with tear-filled eyes.


	10. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: See previous...**

Ben tried out his smile in the reflective surface of the industrial coffee machine. Pretty good. He almost believed it himself. He wanted to make sure that when Lucas regained consciousness he could be convincingly jovial and encouraging. After all, he was the morale office. If he couldn't raise his best friend's morale, what kind of officer did that make him?

Ben paused, shocked at his own line of thought. Best friend? He considered that sporadic thought carefully for a moment. Yes, Lucas was only 16 but he was a genius prodigy who spent all his time around adults. It made Lucas an odd mixture of maturity and immaturity. Ben had always seen them as kindred spirits. Ben had always been an odd mix of immaturity and maturity. He refused to buy into the concept that being mature was being serious all the time.

It wasn't. Maturity, to Ben, was knowing when it was okay to be silly and when it was time to be serious. And, yes, sometimes Ben was immature and chose to be silly or irreverent at the wrong time. It was a hazard of allowing himself to be silly at all.

Ben personally thought that he was as aware of the difference between the right times to be silly and the wrong as those around him; that he was just as mature as they. However, because they chose to be predominantly serious, they appeared more mature by default. Because they happened to be serious at the appropriate time more often than he.

He was learning, though. And if too many people dismissed him as a "character" or "immature", well, it was their loss. Cutting down on the number of casual acquaintances had the bonus of allowing you to focus on the people who bothered to get to know the real you, the people who really matter, people like Lucas.

Ben sighed heavily and allowed himself one more long moment of fear and worry. Then he gathered the three coffee cups deftly in one hand, not for the first time grateful for the skills gathered on his first job as a waiter. He placed the smile on his face carefully, checking his reflection in the coffee pot one last time.

"There you go." He said to his reflection and, smiling, made his way back to sickbay.

As he walked toward the corner of sickbay that housed Lucas' bed he paused. The girl, the baby doctor with the unpronounceable name was apparently trying to unhook her IV bag from the pedestal attached to her bed. She was leaning precariously over the side of the bed to accomplish this. So much so, that Ben almost dropped the coffee cups and ran to catch her. But before he could do something so dramatic she collapsed defeatedly back into the pillows.

"Uh, Hi." Ben said softly as he approached her.

Her head jerked around, clearly surprised. "Oh…uh…I was just…I needed…um.."

"To escape?" Ben grinned. "I'm Ben, by the way."

She smiled shyly. "Hello. I wasn't trying to escape exactly. I mean, I wasn't planning to go far. I just really want to see Lucas."

"You know, speaking of the blue-eyed wonder. I've been meaning to tell you something. Just, you've been asleep every time I've chanced by."

Ben paused and put the coffee down. To the girl's obvious amazement, he took her hand gently in his and looked into her eyes. This was one of those times to be serious.

"Thank you for saving Lucas. He's a…a good friend and I just can't tell you…just…thank you very much."

To Ben's amazement the girl burst into tears.

Ben stood, still holding her hand, in absolute shock.

_Huh?_

"Shhh." He shushed, trying to be consoling. "Um, it's okay. Hey. What's the story, morning glory?" He smiled his best morale smile.

"Morning glory?" The girl asked wetly.

"Just an old song, Sweetie. You wouldn't have heard of it. You okay?"

She sniffed loudly. "Yes, it's just…people have come and they say thank you and they don't know." She choked down a fresh sob. "It's my fault. I left him and then I took too long in the ducts and then I wasted time, I wasted so much time crying and being scared. If it weren't for me, he never would have been so ill."

"Are you serious?" Ben said in a disbelieving tone of voice. Ben had experience with this guilt trip reaction and thought he had a handle on treating it.

"Okay, let's think about this. When did you panic and for how long?"

"After Lucas stopped talking." She sniffed again. "I just called to him and cried forever."

Ben smiled. "Well, forever certainly seems like an exaggeration. That's one thing. The second is that you got scared because Lucas passed out. You were scared because he was already sick. _And_" He held up a finger as she started to protest. "…you kept doing whatever genius things you were doing that let the Captain in and got Lucas out right?"

The girl didn't acknowledge him but she did stop crying.

"Right." Ben answered for her. "Plus, I've heard about your exploits, little missy. You almost drowned letting the troops in."

"But I was so scared!" She protested. "I was terrified the whole time."

Ben smiled his very best morale officer smile. "Sweetie, that's what made it brave."

She didn't look 100 percent convinced that she was a heroine but he was fairly confident that she'd stopped blaming Lucas' condition on herself.

"So, you and Lucas spent some pretty intense time together." Ben said conversantly.

"What?" She replied, thrown off. "Um, not really. I think it was maybe an hour? Why?"

Ben grinned. She was cute in that bookworm kind of way. Take off the glasses, put a little color in her cheeks. Lucas really needed some more experience with girls.

"You think there could be anything there?" He asked, trying to be casual.

"What? Where?" She frowned. "I'm sorry. English isn't my first language. What are you talking about?"

"Just, you ever think maybe when this is over and you and Lucas are feeling better. Maybe you'd like to, you know, go out…on a date…with Lucas?"

He wasn't expecting her response. She laughed.

"What?" Ben said, oddly insulted on his friend's behalf. "Lucas is a great guy!"

"He's 16." She said.

"And what are you? 12?"

She glared at him. "I am 19 years old, thank you."

"Well, honey, you don't look it."

"How old are you?" She asked him.

"36." He replied.

"Well, _honey_, you don't act it." She shot back.

Ben laughed. "Oh boy. You're right. I don't need to be hooking you up with Lucas. You'd eat him alive."

To Ben's delight, Dr. I'm-19-thank-you-very-much joined him.

"Here." He said at last. "Let me see if I can hook you up with some wheels and a way to carry that IV. I'll take you to see Lucas. I think the Captain'd be interested in thanking you properly as well."

The girl seemed a bit conflicted. She obviously wanted to see for herself that Lucas was okay but didn't fancy being thanked again.

Finally, she nodded at him. "I'd appreciate that. Thank you."

"No worries, Love. Requitions are my specialty."

It took Ben less than five minutes to get a chair with an IV post back to her and her loaded into it. She held the coffee cups for him as he wheeled her to what had become Lucas' private corner of sickbay.

The painfully thin teenager lay uncomfortably still on the bed. Dr. Westphalen, satisfied that the reparative therapy had worked, had taken him off the dialysis machine and the ventilator. The cathetar in his chest had been removed as well. On the whole, the boy looked a lot less, well, hooked up.

Ben tried to be cheerful as he approached.

"Lucas still doing an impersonation of sleeping beauty?"

"Oh Ben, the _coffee_, bless you." Dr. Westphalen said and then turned toward him and frowned. "Jana. What are you doing out of bed?"

"All my fault, Doc. I got her a chair but I thought it'd be a good thing if she got a chance to see for herself that Lucas is alive." He tried to give her a meaningful look.

Dr. Westphalen sighed. "I suppose there's no harm. But, Jana, the moment you start feeling tired. I want you back in bed. You've been through quite a bit yourself, my dear. I don't want you straining yourself."

"I won't. Promise." Jana replied meekly. "Is he alright?"

"He will be." The doctor said warmly. "Thanks to you."

Jana blushed uncomfortably and quickly tried to move the conversation along.

"Why doesn't he wake up then?"

"Well, sleeping really is the best way the body can heal itself. Lucas' body has been through a lot. It's going to take him quite some time to recover. He'll sleep until he's ready to wake up and then he'll sleep some more." She smiled warmly at Jana. "We're in no hurry."

Jana smiled back, instantly comforted.

"Young lady," began the Captain. "I don't think I can really express my gratitude to you. Lucas owes you his life and so do all those other hostages. You did a very courageous thing."

Ben watched the girl shiver. "I wasn't courageous. I was very afraid. Lucas wanted to go. I wanted him to go too, honestly, but he was just too sick already."

"Well, thank you all the same." The Captain reached out and stoked the top of the girl's head in what struck Ben as a singularly paternal gesture. He was so good at that kind of thing. No wonder Robert had spoken of him the way he did.

"Captain?" A rough voice from the head of the bed asked softly.

"Hey!" Bridger said turning quickly toward Lucas. "Hey, Kiddo! It's nice to see you!"

Lucas managed a brief grin and closed his eyes. "Yeah. You, too. What happened?"

"Sorry, Lucas. Me first." Dr. Westphalen interrupted. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore." Lucas replied and frowned. "Tired."

"Any sharp pain anywhere?"

Lucas grunted softly. "Everywhere."

Dr. Westphalen smiled. "Yes, well anywhere more than others?"

"Ribs." Lucas answered. He swallowed and then added. "Throat."

"Yes, that'll be from the ventilator."

Lucas frowned and cracked open his eyes. "Why was I on a ventilator?"

"One of your broken ribs became infected, which rapidly progressed to septicemia. By the time I got you back to the ship, you were in septic shock. Don't think I'm going to forget the scare you gave me when I'm handing out research assignments either." She ended threateningly.

Lucas seemed to notice Ben then. "Ben?"

"Yeah, Lucas. It's about time you stopped snoozing." Ben said, plastering the practiced smile across his face. "You sure took your time waking up, lazy bones."

"Sorry." Lucas said with a faint grin and closed his eyes. "I was dreaming about the time you had all that fish poop in your quarters and I guess I was just too amused to wake up."

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. You're not going to be in sickbay forever. My day will come." Ben said in a mock threatening voice.

Something seemed to occur to Lucas then. "Jana? Is she okay? What happened? How'd I get here?"

"Shh, shh, shh" Dr. Westphalen soothed. "Jana's right here. A bit worse for wear but she'll be fine. You both did a great job." She paused and gingerly brushed his fringe from his eyes. "I'm extremely proud of you young man." She turned her gaze to Jana and added. "Of both of you."

"Jana?" Lucas called quietly.

"I'm fine." She replied and couldn't seem to resist adding. "I'm sorry I took so long. I'm glad you're okay."

Lucas smiled with his eyes still closed. "Not bad. For a girl."

Ben almost lauged at her reaction.

"Well, you also did not do too badly. For a dropout."

"Hey, I _was_ the keynote speaker." Lucas rasped with a smile.

"And you are _still_ impossible!" Jana started to laugh but her laugh quickly turned into a cough. Dr. Westphalen reacted quickly.

"Back to bed young lady." She said sternly.

Lucas opened his eyes again and strained to lift his head, a concerned look on his face. "You okay?"

"Fine." Jana gasped, glaring at the doctor as she pulled out a stethescope to listen to her lungs.

"You're far from fine, my dear. You _will_ be fine in short order but only if you listen to me and do as your told. Right now you're being told to get back to bed."

Dr. Westphalen grasped the wheelchair handles and prepared to wheel her away.

"Better you than me." Lucas rasped with a smile.

"Don't be cocky, young man. I'm coming back for you." Westphalen said sternly but with a smile.

"Feel better, Lucas." Jana said over her shoulder.

"Good luck, Jana." Lucas answered.

Ben watched Lucas laying there with an amused smile on his face and felt a warm glow of contentment fill him. He realized that he was smiling too. He didn't even have to fake it.


	11. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: SeaQuest isn't mine. I'm just goofing off.**

**Okay, this was supposed to be the last chapter but I ended up adding another after because this one didn't make the story feel complete.**

Jana pulled at the UEO uniform to see the name patch again. It proclaimed her to be Dr. Jana Stefanekova: Hero. She smiled as she remembered Ben's proud face as he'd presented it to her, insisting she wear it today when she left the ship.

She was approaching Lucas' sickbay bed when she over heard voices. She decided she didn't want to interrupt and paused.

"He isn't coming, is he?" It was Lucas' voice.

"I'm sorry, Kiddo. No." Bridger's voice sounded a strange mixture of sadness and anger.

"It's okay. I'm used to it."

"You shouldn't be." Bridger said, his voice inching closer to anger than sadness now.

Lucas made no response that Jana could hear and she decided to make her presence known.

"Lucas?" She called as she rounded the corner.

Bridger turned and smiled warmly at her.

"Jana, dear." He gave her a quick hug. "So, you're leaving us today, eh?"

Jana felt her cheeks flushing. "Yes, I'm very happy to be going home but I'm still hesitant to go. You all have been so kind."

"The least we can do." Bridger said with feeling then turned to Lucas.

"I'll leave you two to say your good-byes. Jana, I'll see you off at the shuttle."

"Bye." Jana said as he exited the room.

"How you feeling?" Lucas asked.

Jana smiled in response. "Almost back to normal. Dr. Westphalen is very…determined."

Lucas barked a shallow laugh. "Yeah, that's an understatement."

"Lucas, I heard what you were saying. It's your father, you were speaking of?"

Lucas looked away. "Yeah."

"Hmm." Jana said. "I don't wish to offend you Lucas. I've come to think of us as friends?"

Lucas looked at her again. "Of course." He confirmed.

Jana smiled. "Good. Well, it's just…I've met your father. He is a brilliant man."

Lucas sighed and lowered his eyes but Jana wasn't done. "But he is a fool."

Lucas glanced up again.

"You are an amazing scientist." Jana said and ignored Lucas' protestations. "I have been inspired by you, Lucas."

"You have?" He asked.

Jana smiled. "Yes. Before this event I was so timid. I always took the safe route. I never challenged myself, always too afraid of failure. You? You run out and find the answers you seek. You don't care about academics or titles or what people think. Because of this you have already made amazing discoveries." Jana's voice grew excited. "I want to do that, to be like that."

Jana held out her hand to Lucas who took it automatically.

"Thank you for inspiring me." She grinned. "If your father cannot recognize how amazing you are, it is his loss."

"Thanks." Lucas said. "Are you close with your father?"

"No." Jana said softly. "No, both of my parents died when I was very young."

Lucas looked horrified. "I'm so sorry. Ah, so stupid. I'm sitting here complaining about my Dad and you…"

Jana interrupted fiercely. "You're father cannot be bothered to come to your bedside after you very nearly died. Just because I don't have my father doesn't mean you should be grateful that your ass of a father is still alive."

Lucas looked shocked for a moment and then laughed.

"I guess he is kind of an ass, isn't he?"

"He is most definitely an ass." Jana said in an almost patronizing tone. "Don't question me little boy. I am a doctor."

Lucas grunted. "You know, I'm tempted to get my doctorate if for no other reason than to shut you up."

Jana smiled back. "I like you, Lucas." She said. "Still friends?"

"Definitely." Lucas confirmed with a grin.

"I guess I'll see you on the internex." She said as she stood to leave.

"I'm Frankenstein." He said.

"I'm 2BDreamer." Jana replied.

"Interesting. Mean anything?" Lucas asked.

"Shakespeare." Jana explained. "From Hamlet. When he talks about death he wonders if death is like sleep and then wonders if in the sleep of death, we dream."

Lucas looked thoughtful. "Do you think we'll dream?" He asked.

Jana laughed. "I think I've got a lot longer to think about it than I thought I would a few days ago."

Lucas smiled. "Good point."

"I also think I'm going to spend that time doing something with my life. Something better. Maybe a bit braver."

Lucas grinned. "Good luck."

Jana shook his hand again. "I think I'll need it."

She started to walk out of the room but paused at the door.

"Lucas?"

"Hmm?"

Jana looked very serious.

"You know, you don't have to prove anything to him, your father. If anything, he has something to prove to you. Try to remember that?"

Lucas thought about it for a minute. "Thanks. I'll do my best."

Jana smiled. "Good luck with that."

Lucas watched her round the corner and disappear then almost jumped out of his skin as Ben appeared out of nowhere.

"You know," Ben said with a sly grin. "Three years isn't really all that big an age difference and she's looking much cuter now that she's not dying."

Lucas' only response was to throw one of his pillows into Kreig's insufferable face.

"Fine. Fine." Kreig said irritably. "But don't go blaming me if you die a virgin."


	12. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: SeaQuest isn't mine but I'm not making money off it so please don't smack me with the almight backhand of the US Civil Court system.**

**Okay, I didn't like the way I ended this story. It didn't feel done. Now it feels done and I hope the faithful readers who thought it was done get to read this new ending and like it.**

Alice looked at the blinking message light and considered her options. Dr. Wolenczak seemed to be pretty engrossed.

He could come out of it with a distracted, "What? What did you need?" take the message and everything be fine. OR. He could throw a fit and give her a sour stomach for three days.

She really needed to find a new job.

She could ignore the message. She should ignore the message. He could get to it when he got to it but…that could take days. The address said it was from his son.

Alice thought back to that terrible day almost three weeks ago. She had been given the unenviable task of informing the absentminded asshole…I mean, professor…that his son had been taken hostage and the terrorists responsible were threatening to kill him.

Dr. Wolenczak had been distraught and, of course, angry. He had ranted and screamed at this official and that, ordering whoever would listen to give in to the terrorists' demands. Then the awful broadcast had come through. They were a UEO lab and like all UEO facilities their vidlink had been hacked.

The doctor had watched in stunned silence as his son, bound and gagged was displayed for all the world to see. Alice remembered the doctor had gasped as though in pain even before the gun was fired. Right after his son's final scream.

Alice had turned away at the sound of the shot, horrified.

Dr. Wolenczak had been inconsolable. Alice had never seen the man inactive, ever. He was always doing something. But after his sons apparent death he merely sat in his office. Well, he had done one thing. He had made a vidcall.

The strangest part about the whole strange ordeal had been his reaction to the news his son wasn't dead but gravely injured. He had requested to be constantly updated to any change in his son's condition but made no direct contact to the sub on which his son was being treated.

When his son had regained consciousness, Dr. Wolenczak didn't even call to speak to the boy. The doctor seemed happy that his son had survived but a sort of depression seemed to cling to him and Alice couldn't, for the life of her, understand why.

Alice shook the thoughts from her mind. She was stalling. Make a decision, Alice.

She looked at the message alert on her screen, then at the doctor and then she smiled.

Dr. Wolenczak was irritated. The lab assistant, what was her name?, was tapping him on the shoulder and he was in the middle of a complicated train of thought.

"What? What is it that is so important you have to negate an hours worth of contemplation and consideration?" He barked angrily.

To his surprise the mousy young woman smiled.

"Thank you, Doctor. That is exactly what I needed." She sighed happily. "You're son left you a vid message. I think you should check it before you start looking for my replacement. I quit!"

She said this all in a very pleasant voice while taking off her while lab coat and then threw it into his face.

Dr. Wolenczak stared at her back as she almost skipped out of the lab.

He dropped the coat angrily to the floor. Wonderful. Now he would have to waste time finding another annoying and undoubtedly equally incompetent replacement.

His eye fell on the flashing alert on the screen to which the girl had referred him.

Lucas.

He hadn't been able to think about Lucas without feeling, what? Anger? Sadness?

_Guilt._

A part of him supplied the word and he knew it was the brutally honest side of himself.

His son had been faced with death and had called, not him; not his father. He had called out to Bridger. He had screamed the word 'Captain'. And why shouldn't he?

Wolenczak certainly hadn't become the golden boy of the UEO by being slow. As soon as he had bothered to apply his considerable intellect to the question he had immediately identified the problem. It was him. He wasn't a father to Lucas in any substantial way. He had wasted Lucas' life thinking about tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll take Lucas to the zoo. Tomorrow I'll help him with his project. Then the tomorrows kept turning into yesterdays and Lucas didn't make it any easier. He had developed intellectually at such an accelerated rate.

Wolenczak thought back to one of the rare times he and Lucas had spent time together. One of the few times he had bothered to give Lucas his undivided attention. Lucas had looked at a vid routing number, he had been what, nine?, and he'd said, "What a pretty number."

Lawrence had looked at his son then. He had paid attention. "What's pretty about it?" He had asked, interested in what the boy could have seen.

Lucas smiled. "It had nine numbers and ends in nine. I like that. But it also starts with eight and then the only other numbers besides zeros are 2 and 3. 8 and 9 and 2 and 3 are consecutive integers. Plus!" and the boy's eyes lit with excitement. "There are five zeros and 2 plus 3 equals five. Five is a prime number AND the zeros are evenly placed. 800203009. It's just really pretty. I like it."

Wolenczak had stared at his son with frank wonderment and Lucas had seemed to glow in the rare moment of attention.

Lucas had craved his attention. Laurence saw that now. What had he done? He sent the boy away. Sent him to schools he thought would explore the boy's potential. Lucas had played along for a while. Probably hoping that continued excellence would get him more of the attention he craved.

When that hadn't worked Lucas had rebelled. Even that tack hadn't worked. Lawrence had placed him on the SeaQuest.

Now, Lucas had a new father, a much better father. Wolenczak sighed and rubbed dry eyes.

He had no one to blame but himself.

He walked over to the blinking message alert and almost deleted it without watching. He could imagine what Lucas would say. How he would angrily demand and explanation for why his father hadn't come to see him.

_Yet another thing I've done wrong._ He thought sulkily.

Then he made a decision. No more of this sulking in his lab. He had been a terrible father and Lucas had moved on. He could accept that. He could never hope to be Lucas' father now but perhaps, just maybe, he could win Lucas' respect as a colleague and friend.

He owed it to Lucas to at least try.

He sat down at the monitor and selected the message.

Lucas appeared on the screen. His son seemed thinner, if that were possible. He was dressed in a smock that failed to cover the edge of a bandage on his chest. He looked terribly pale and weak and Wolenczak winced at the sight.

Then Lucas began speaking:

"Hi, Dad. Um, I hope you're okay. I talked to your assistant, Alice. She said you were, um, really upset about the whole thinking I was dead thing. I'm sorry about that."

Lawrence frowned at Lucas' apology. _You're not the one who should be apologizing._ He thought angrily.

"I just, I want you to know, I understand you're busy. You're doing important work and, um, I just, um, I hope you've had a chance to look at my research. I think that it…it's significant but, um, I guess you'd be the best person to judge that wouldn't you?"

Lucas smiled and his father felt his eyes burn. He was so happy to see that wry grin.

"Anyway, I, um, I just wanted to tell you that, um, well, when I was…" Lucas frowned. He seemed to be trying to hold back an expression of pain. "When I thought I was dying…there was a point that I thought I wasn't ever going to see you again and I wanted…"

Lucas turned his eyes to the camera.

"I wanted to see you again, Dad. I wanted to tell you that…" Lucas shrugged and smiled faintly. "I love you."

Tears spilled from Wolenczak's eyes and he sniffed noisily.

"I wanted you to know that. Okay, Bye."

The message ended.

Wolenczak took a moment to compose himself. His son still loved him. Maybe it wasn't too late to be his father, a real father.

Wolenczak stood and briskly started wiping the tears from his face and neck. Why wasn't that lab assistant, what's her name, at her post? He wondered absently. Useless girl was never around when he needed her.

He had a trip to plan.


End file.
